Who Makes A Vise Between China & Kurt?

Maybe you could do some machining on the vice and use the $250 on new toys..er tools.

I'm a toddler when it come to machining stuff. I think making this vise accurate is out of my reach at the moment. Besides, from what I can tell the track that the moveable jaws slide in are not cut square. It looks like the vise was cocked 5-6 degrees when the milled the slots. Hope that makes sense. Makes sense in my head......
 
When you close the vise tight, do the jaws clamp with no space? If so, then is the moveable jaw just sloppy/loose from side to side? You can put set screws in the moveable jaw where the jaw tracks on each side and adjust the setscrews to tighten up the translation/travel of the jaw…Good Luck, Dave.
No, the left side still has a 32nd gap unless I really crank on it. I put some shims behind the left side of the moveable jaws. It's much better now and functional. It's useable for what I do but a better quality vise is in my future none the less.
 
Hmmmm 1/16" is not good at all! You need to contact LMS and let them know your not happy and see what they will do about it.

You can get a kurt clone fron enco, for example mod #425-7240 for $100.27 / $80.21 after a 20% off+ free shipping that will give you extra $$$$ to spend on tooling, and enco will replace it if you find a problem with it without a hassle. that's been my experience. :eagerness:
Tomh

I'm not going to bother lms. I've had it for a year now and been using it while I learn. It was my first millimg machine vise and I didn't know what I was looking at. I've learned a lot in the last year. LMS has always been excelent to me. I'm sure if I would have said something they would have taken care of me.
I've moved out of country so the free shipping with enco does not apply to me. The 20% off deal I use often though.






























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I'd definitely bring it to the vendor's attention. I can assure you that they do not want negative publicity. Sometimes things just slip through. Since they are a reputable dealer I'd imagine that they would be willing to exchange it.

For what it's worth, I received a Shars 4" milling vise today and just finished cleaning it up. For a little over $100 (with shipping) it's not bad. Certainly no gaps like you mention.
 
Soft Jaws.
Make some jaws from easily machinable material and bolt them on, place a thin parallel at the bottom of the face, close the vice and machine them in place. They can be machined with steps, round bores with a boring head, grooves and any other shape that you can accomplish with the tools at hand. This removes virtually all of the error, if you remove and reinstall the vice just skim cut them again.
 
Soft Jaws.
Make some jaws from easily machinable material and bolt them on, place a thin parallel at the bottom of the face, close the vice and machine them in place. They can be machined with steps, round bores with a boring head, grooves and any other shape that you can accomplish with the tools at hand. This removes virtually all of the error, if you remove and reinstall the vice just skim cut them again.

Oh, that's simple. I never thought of that. Thanks
 
I'd definitely bring it to the vendor's attention. I can assure you that they do not want negative publicity. Sometimes things just slip through. Since they are a reputable dealer I'd imagine that they would be willing to exchange it.

For what it's worth, I received a Shars 4" milling vise today and just finished cleaning it up. For a little over $100 (with shipping) it's not bad. Certainly no gaps like you mention.

LMS has no fault in this. Had I contacted them shortly after I bought it they would have bent over backwards to make me happy. They always do. They didn't make the vise and I never brought it to their attention. Partly because I was out of the country for the couple months right after received it and partly because I was a super noob. We all know what we're buying when we use enco, shars, LMS, etc. it's (mostly) stuff made by the 100's of thousands and cheap enough for the hobbiest. China probably measures every 10,000th vise they make, LMS might measure a couple out of every batch they get and I was supposed to inspect mine. I didn't, it's was months ago and I'm moving on. If someone thinks my problem with a $120ish China vise is bad publicity for LMS they need to think harder. This same vise could have been sent out to any of the other dozens of retailers who sell this vise. This is bad publicity for China made tooling.
 
FWIW a good used one or perhaps a Homge Vertex im sure there are a few others ( Taiwan made) Im in the market too for a mill vice ....

http://www.homge.com.tw/vices.html

http://www.machinetoolonline.com/VisesHighPrecision.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400967067618?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

that's the one im gona buy if I cant find a good one ( good used) after seeing the economy models im not so impressed
im getting a little tired of poke and hope china stuff .. some stuff i guess is ok some stuff for machine aint worth if its gona have run out and or mal function break... bad casting ect.........
im sure yull get many opinions on this .. HTH
 
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